With Nibali in command, Tour now about 2nd place

BERGERAC, France — Ramunas Navardauskas gave Lithuania and his American team a stage victory Friday at the Tour de France. Now cycling's great showcase is reduced to this — the race for second place behind Vincenzo Nibali.

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By The Associated Press

MailTribune.com

By The Associated Press

Posted Jul. 26, 2014 at 12:10 AM
Updated Jul 26, 2014 at 3:10 AM

By The Associated Press

Posted Jul. 26, 2014 at 12:10 AM
Updated Jul 26, 2014 at 3:10 AM

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BERGERAC, France — Ramunas Navardauskas gave Lithuania and his American team a stage victory Friday at the Tour de France. Now cycling's great showcase is reduced to this — the race for second place behind Vincenzo Nibali.

The Italian, who has all but won the yellow jersey, cruised to the finish in Stage 19 in the rain-splattered pack behind the Lithuanian's breakaway. Only a mishap of the highest order during today's time trial would deny Nibali victory in Paris on Sunday.

With cool and methodical racing, Nibali has bit by bit built a lead of more than seven minutes on his closest rivals, and much more against many others. Frenchmen Thibaut Pinot and Jean-Christophe Peraud and Spaniard Alejandro Valverde are vying for second and third.

The showdown comes down to today's 54-kilometer (33.5-mile) race against the clock from Bergerac to Perigueux. Relatively long by Tour standards, the time trial will require riders to maintain a steady rhythm and face the wind or rain on their own without the protection of the pack.

Only 15 seconds separate the three riders behind Nibali. Pinot trails the leader by 7 minutes, 10 seconds. Peraud is 7:23 back, with Valverde two seconds slower. Pinot is considered the least skilled among the three in time trials.

"Tomorrow is the most important stage of the Tour," Pinot said. "I'll have to be strong."

Next in the standings is France's Romain Bardet, a teammate of Peraud's on the AG2R La Mondiale team. But he's more than two minutes behind Valverde and not considered strong in time trials. American Tejay van Garderen is regarded as strong, but he's another two minutes slower in sixth place — and erasing his four-minute deficit to join the podium contenders would be no small feat.

In reverse order of the standings, riders today set off one by one down the starter's ramp at several-minute intervals over more than six hours. Cheng Ji of Giant-Shimano, the first rider from China in the race, will go first. Nibali goes last.

The not-quite flat and long course will require riders to muster all the strength they have left in legs that have suffered, strained and burned over three weeks — a trek that began in the hills and dales of Yorkshire, England, covered coarse cobblestones and ascended several mountain peaks.

"There's no real danger, it's not too technical — it's really power that will matter," race director Thierry Gouvenou said, referring to the time trial. "There's just a little climb at the end, but after you've covered the Alps and the Pyrenees, it's really a little climb."

Three-time world time-trial champion Tony Martin of Germany is perhaps the favorite to win the stage, Gouvenou said, but "when you reach this part of the Tour de France, it's really a question of freshness and what you have left in the tank."

Just as Italy is eager for its first Tour winner since Marco Pantani in 1998, many French fans are ebullient at the prospect that the first rider from the race's homeland will reach the podium for the first time since Richard Virenque in 1997.

Those two success stories, however, came at the height of cycling's doping scandal. Both riders were later sanctioned in connection with banned performance enhancers. Since then, with a crackdown on drugs cheats in place, the peloton has cleaned up considerably.

Navardauskas rides for the Garmin-Sharp team, which has been among the most outspoken against doping. He led a late breakaway in a downpour to win the 208.5-kilometer (129.5-mile) stage from Maubourguet to Bergerac. He looked over his shoulder, kissed his fingers and raised his arms in victory, with the pack barreling in behind him seven seconds later.